31.10.12

Kristy and Alyce have designed 25 Christmas themed blocks (13 Paper pieced and 12 Ornamental blocks) which are perfect for your festive makes. At the end of the hop there will be a linky party with some fabulous prizes up for grabs (all the details can be seen here & here).

I put the final border on the quilt on Sunday and was so excited I decided to baste it straight away, despite not having a clue how I was going to quilt it!! I did a little shopping at the Knitting and Stitching show, whilst helping out Annie on her stall and picked up these Aurifil threads.

Aurifil threads

I wanted to do an all over quilt pattern, without distracting from the quilt pattern, so I started with a giant diamond in the silver thread and echoed my way out changing colours as I went.

Ta da - Blue chaos

I am really happy with my un-planned quilting scheme, it gives so much texture to the quilt.

Closeup of the 'organic' quilting!!

I rather bravely used the Kona black for my backing, thankfully there are few quilting hiccups to be seen which is a miracle!!

For the binding I chose the Black text print from the Mama said sew line.

27.10.12

After a couple of weeks of not looking at my Space dust quilt, I took it back out and photographed it to see if I could pinpoint what I wasn't liking.

The most obvious problem is the small addition of the Tula print (see mahoosive arrow in pic). I thought it would blend being grey, but it just doesn't work at all. That's an easy fix but what about the rest of it?? I was planning to use greys and purples and a little blue for the last two rows, should I finish it or put it back in the cupboard??

26.10.12

Woo hoo it is time for the Autumn Blogger's Quilt festival hosted by Amy over at Amy's Creative side.

Last time I entered my Tropical Rainbow baby quilt and got into the finals, so this time I thought I would chance my luck with Bloom.

I fell in love with the Bloom pattern after Aneela showed us her
original quilt at one of our LMQG meets. After much hint dropping,
Aneela sent me a copy of her pattern and I got to work. I picked
rainbow fabrics from my stash of course, being a little rainbow obsessive.

Before making this quilt I had a little hand stitching phobia and would use my charms to get my MIL to do it for me. That changed with this quilt, although my lovely friend Danielle helped with hand appliqueing the third ring after I pleaded with her ;-).

For the quilting, I stitched in the ditch around all the dresdens and then quilted organic straight lines (I love it that 'meant to be straight but not' can be called 'organic').

This quilt was destined for my living room sofa, but it really needed to
be on a bed so that it could be seen in all it's glory. So that is
where it now lives, alternating with my HMM quilt.

Quilt stats:
Approx 73" square

112 dresdens in 34 different fabrics

A million and 1 hand stitches (okay maybe that's a slight exaggeration and I did have help on the third dresden plate)

Background fabric - Kona White

Backing and Binding - Moda extra wide dotty in grey.

Special techniques - AppliqueQuilted - by me on my home machine Best Categories - Bed quilt; Appliqued quilt and ROYGIVB

I am looking forward to seeing all the beautiful quilts entered into the festival, there was plenty of eye candy last time.

23.10.12

Yesterday I alluded to the fact that I had received my Mouthy Stitches swap and oh boy did I luck out!!!

Yesterday morning the postman came with a couple of parcels and as I hadn't ordered anything I was surprised when one of them was for me! Then I turned the package over and saw the sender initials of HJG and nearly wet myself with excitement. So much so I had half ripped of the really pretty wrapping before I remembered the camera!!

So picture taken I let go my self control and opened this wrapping like a kid on Christmas morning and then actually squealed!

Oh yes, HJG was exactly who I thought is was and I had just hit the jackpot with Hadley's fabulous tote!

Pictures courtesy of Hadley as this grey foggy weather does not make for nice pics!!

This tote is just perfect for me with the rainbow geese, grey fabric and lush embroidery. The bonus being the empire state key fob which my keys are now proudly hanging from. I cannot wait to toot this around work in the morning leaving jealous sighs behind me!

Hadley you ROCK!!!!!

A great start to the week and today is my 8th wedding anniversary, long may the good times continue.

22.10.12

I have just got back from a week away at my in-laws with the kidlet. I love these little breaks as the Grandparents are always happy to babysit, whilst I turn their living room upside down with all my sewing crap.

I had a little list of things to finish/put together which all got shelved in favour of my Kinky bee quilt. My bee month was July and I asked for a 19" circle block using a pile of my rainbow scraps, my fellow kinky's did not let me down!

Kinky Bee - Bumblies Miss July quilt 2012

Closeup of the quilting - I used pebbles, Paisley and swirls.

I bought this Angela Walters quilting course on Craftsy, which encouraged me to try a bit more than wonky wavy lines with the quilting. I was so glad I did, the quilting took about 15 hours and I went through 20 bobbins but I am thrilled with how it turned out. Now just have to decide on binding, though I am leaning towards Summersville Weave in charcoal.

I managed a few other sewing bits and bobs as well last week, but will save them for another post. I also got my Mouthy Stitches tote in the post today and nearly wet myself with excitement, but that is also story for tomorrow ;-)

9.10.12

This morning was not a pleasant one for me. First I discovered, after I had cut all my fabric out, that I really did not like my fabric choices for the Mod Pop QAL. It's weird, I love the pattern and I love Summersville, just not together. So back to the drawing board on that one!!!

The second rubbish thing was having to spend 2.5 hours in my local Kwik fit after the car failed its MOT, not amused!

The afternoon on the other hand has been rather nice. I admired my pervy progress a lot....

I am loving this QAL and thinking I may add onto the borders to make this a lap size quilt.

8.10.12

Back at the start of September I was doing a little 'should be working' tinternet surfing and came across this craft vendor apron tute. As I have mentioned a few times, I am going along to the Knitting & Stitching show on Saturday to help Annie on her fabric stall (J22 - if you are going!!).

I wanted to look the part, so I emailed Annie to see if she wanted an apron too. Four metres of Melody Miller later and the ladies of the LMQG are ready to rock Ally Pally in style....

Fabrics: Ruby Star Shining, Melody Miller

I can't help thinking though, that I am going to come home a little lighter in the wallet after being surrounded by the gorgeous fabrics all day ;-)

1.10.12

October is upon us and in typical UK style it is grey and drizzly outside! With the use of a LOT of artificial light I managed to get a few decent pics of the last of my September makes all ready for Fresh Sewing day.

It's been a fairly quiet month for me, with an awful lot of Handstitchery.